Britain’s Got Talent is back on the menu

As you can’t fail to have noticed, Series 8 of Britain’s Got Talent kicked off on April 12th and from now until June our Saturday nights will not be the same. Ant & Dec are back as hosts, with Stephen Mulhern presenting the spin-off, Britain’s Got More Talent, and the panel of David Walliams, Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden and the Marmite Simon Cowell remains unchanged from Series 7.

The show follows its familiar format, but with one additional tweak. Each judge, plus Ant & Dec, have been given a ‘golden buzzer’. The standard buzzer retains its judgmental power but the new button allows each judge just one supervote for the whole series. The judges are now able to effectively bypass all debate and dissent on the panel and send an act directly to the live semi-finals.

Understandably, this new option, an inverted veto if you will, was exhausted in short order and five underdog acts are now relishing the prospect of an unexpected appearance in the live shows. Perhaps the most remarkable beneficiaries of the ‘golden buzzer’ are salsa dancing duo, Paddy and Nico, who melted Holden’s heart in the auditions. Paddy is 79 years of age but produces genuine gasps of amazement from the audience as she is, quite literally, thrown spinning through the air by her much younger partner!

With the live shows just around the corner and with Cheryl Cole booked to premiere her new single, ‘I Don’t Care’, in the series finale we are sure to witness a number of thrills and spills along the way!